Civil War Memorial

Alonzo Stinson, Portland, ca. 1860

Sgt. Alonzo Palmer Stinson was the first soldier from Portland killed in the Civil War. He was 19 when he died at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, less than a month after enlisting as a sergeant in Co. H of the 5th Maine Volunteer Regiment.

Stinson's brother Harry was also in Company H; he stayed on the battlefield with his brother after Alonzo was wounded by a cannonball. Harry was captured by the Confederates and was imprisoned for more than a year.

After getting out of prison he returned to the war as an officer in the Volunteers Aide-de-Camp Infantry Regiment. He died of disease, "in the service of his country," on February 22, 1866, by which time he was a Captain, breveted as a lieutenant colonel.